Tag Archive 'Indie Rock'

“On 2012′s Fear Fun, Josh Tillman introduced audiences to Father John Misty, a jaded and erudite, faux-bohemian retro-pop confectioner with a strong surrealist bent and an aptitude for capturing the American zeitgeist via wry couplets concerning the culturally and morally ambiguous wasteland of southern California. That penchant for gutter-highbrow confessionalism still looms large on his [...]

“While Dengue Fever could almost have qualified as a novelty act when they first started out (Los Angeles hipsters playing decades-old Cambodian pop tunes? Talk about high concept!), they’ve matured into a richly satisfying band, blending several different cultures and styles into an indie rock melting pot, and 2015′s The Deepest Lake, their sixth studio [...]

“There are plenty of startling moments full of guts and gristle in Lady Lamb’s dense lyrics, and then there are the moments when she wanders. The fingerpicked ‘Sunday Shoes’ stretches out between the shoegaze-inflected ‘Heretic’ and ‘Spat Out Spit’, injecting a weird bubble of space into the album’s flow. The rousing coda on ‘Penny Licks’ [...]

“…with a new kind of focus in their songs and arrangements that makes it clear this album’s sound is a result of creative evolution, not an offering to their newer, larger audience, and it’s a sweet and sour wonder that rewards repeated listening.” -allmusic.com Check our Catalog Listen Now

“In some ways, Perfume Genius’ intimate, unflinching balladry reached its logical conclusion on Put Your Back N 2 It. On that deceptively gentle collection of songs, Mike Hadreas’ songwriting gained more agency while opening the door to the possibilitieshe explores to the fullest on Too Bright. With the help of Portishead’s Adrian Utley and PJ [...]

“Do to the Beast is an ambitious attempt to re-create the feeling of the Afghan Whigs while retooling their sonic fingerprint; the final product is intelligent and often fascinating, but it doesn’t deliver like the Afghan Whigs do at their best, and ultimately comes off as a brave but somewhat unsatisfying experiment.” -allmusic.com Check [...]

“‘Haunting’ is an overused adjective, but it still defines Mirel Wagner’s music perfectly. It certainly applied to her self-titled debut, which brought folk and blues back to their eldritch roots with songs that fell somewhere between nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and murder ballads. It’s an even more apt description of her intensely beautiful and unsettling [...]

“As impressive as Rave Tapes’ rockers are, the album’s heart lies in subtler tracks like ‘Heard About You Last Night,’ a dreamy prelude that makes the most of the delicacy Mogwai has excelled at since their early days. Similarly, the quietly anthemic ‘Blues Hour’ and vocoder-driven ‘The Lord Is Out of Control’ hark back to [...]

“While much of Springtime Carnivore walks in a Twilight Zone between indie pop and clever appropriations of the past, Morgan does manage to reveal a personality of her own over the course of these 14 tracks, and she comes off as clever, confident, and a sure hand with a tune on this set, while her [...]

“While both Aimee Mann and Ted Leo are perfectly capable of making records that are full of brainy, emotionally charged, and melodically rich songs, together they come together in a way that adds up to something greater than their solo work.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog

“Takako Minekawa returned with Toropical Circle, a collaboration with former Ponytail guitarist Dustin Wong that is equally familiar and surprising….Toropical Circle might be Minekawa’s least overtly poppy album yet, but it’s also one of her most successful and intriguing; it’s true to her spirit as well as Wong’s, and a lovely, welcome return.” –All Music [...]

“As Morning Phase is a slow, shimmering album deliberately in the vein of classic singer/songwriter LPs, it’s easy to think of it as a pained, confessional sequel to Sea Change, the 2002 record written and recorded in the wake of a painful romantic breakup….[T]he abiding impression left from this album is one of comfort, not [...]

“As always in Broken Bells’ world, there’s a fine line between bittersweet and bummed out; while these aren’t the easiest moods to make appealing, Burton and Mercer succeed….Given Burton and Mercer’s pedigrees, it’s hard not to want more from Broken Bells, but After the Disco’s strongest moments suggest that their music is coming into focus.” [...]

“Olsen expands in all directions, fully reaching the depth of expression hinted at on her last album while still lingering in the restlessness and searching feelings that make all of her work so captivating….The song’s multi-tracked vocals and pained melody get into different territory than anything else on the record, leaving the door open for [...]

“When Los Campesinos! burst onto the indie scene in the late 2000s, they were a rambunctious (more or less) half-male/half-female crew who madly ran through their songs like they were chasing rainbow-puking unicorns. The results, like the song ‘You! Me! Dancing!,’ or the album Hold on Now, Youngster…, were wild, unpredictable, and the best kind [...]

“With their fifth album, the aptly titled Memorial, Chicago instrumentalists Russian Circles craft an album that fully, and mostly wordlessly, explores this idea of a specific, controlled space where one is supposed to let their feelings run wild….Memorial… makes for an album that’s not only satisfying, but one of the band’s strongest works to date.” [...]

“Utilizing a fuller, slicker production than on Get Young, Golden Rules for Golden People finds the Boston group refining its angular sound with pop polish….There’s a lot to wrap your head around and enjoy with Golden Rules for Golden People. It’s a grower, and a long cry from a sign that the trio’s selling out, [...]

“Sounding like they were forged in the early to mid-’90s — when Throwing Muses and Sleater-Kinney were all the rage — Speedy Ortiz’s 2013 debut album, Major Arcana, finds the four-piece influenced by the raw, slanted guitar-driven indie rock of the ’90s….Many listeners may find themselves drawn in by the authentic retro indie style and [...]

“[I]t’s Gibbard’s poetic lyrics and signature introspection that remain a bench mark for Death Cab; and it’s the group’s maturity as musicians as well as songwriters that make Transatlanticism such a decadently good listen from start to finish. The band has never sounded more cohesive, the track sequencing is brilliant, and it caps off a [...]